Liverpool have put a salary cap on Academy players in order to combat football’s increasing culture of heaping too much, too soon on youngsters.

The Reds’ new policy means 17-year-olds in their first season will not be able to earn more than a basic salary of £40,000 a year, the Telegraph reported.

The initiative that has been put in place is to protect young players from too much exposure so early in their careers. Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton have also adopted a similar approach for their youngsters.

Jurgen Klopp has openly spoken about his desire to promote youth at the club and the importance he places on developing young players. His six-year contract which will keep him at Anfield until 2022 means the boss is looking to the future.

Jurgen Klopp manager of Liverpool laughing with Pepijn Lijnders first-team development coach during a training session at Melwood Training Ground on March 18, 2016 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Klopp told the ECHO: “I’ve had a lot of good talks with the guys at the Academy. [Academy Director] Alex Inglethorpe does a brilliant job there.

“Pep Lijnders is our Academy guy if you like on the first-team staff. There’s a perfect relationship with the Academy.”

Ovie Ejaria, Ben Woodburn and Trent Alexander-Arnold have also made the step up into Klopp’s first team squad this year.

However it’s been all change in Kirkby as the academy has undergone a player cull in the last few years. Inglethorpe told the ECHO in August that the club were focussing on quantity rather than quantity, having slashed their academy from 240 to 170 in two years.

The Reds’ academy is in rude health and the manager spoke yesterday about his desire to let the club’s youngsters flourish. He has thinned the squad in an effort to allow to youngsters the space and time to showcase their talents.